Converted C Drive from MBR to GPT and Now I Have a New System Reserved Partition, Can I Remove It?
Hello, I recently decided to get my PC ready for Windows 11. I ran PC Health Check, which said I needed to enable Secure Boot and TPM 2.0. Found out I needed to convert my Windows OS Drive from MBR to GPT. I figured out how to do that with diskpart, but a System Reserved Drive called $WINRE_BACKUP_PARTITION.MARKER. Is this thing safe to remove? Is the EFI System Partition safe to remove? Help me.
Best Answered by
Roxanne· Answered on Jul 31, 2023
Don't remove any of the partitions.
Let me explain what these new partitions are and why you can't remove them. From the information you provided, there is a file called $WINRE_BACKUP_PARTITION.MARKER shows on your system drive after you convert MBR to GPT. Actually, this file is not generated during the conversion process. Instead, it comes with the original system and contains sensitive data that can recover the original system. Hence, you should not remove the partition that contains this file. However, if you don't want to see it, you can hide the drive letter by removing it.
As for the new EFI system partitions, converting the disk from MBR to GPT will generate one EFI system partition. Many users think this partition is unnecessary and want to delete it for extra space. However, this partition saves boot and system volume information, including Boot Loader, System Utilities, etc. These boot files are closely bound up with the booting process, so it will lead to boot failure if you delete the EFI system partition.
If you don't want strange situations to happen again after disk conversion. I recommend you convert the system disk using EaseUS Partition Master next time. It is an effective partition management software that can help you cope with any partition problem, including converting MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR.
You May Refer: Convert MBR to GPT using EaseUS Partition Master
After viewing the above content, you must make sense of why you can't remove the EFI system partition. As a newer outcome, EFI system partition is a complex concept for a computer novice to understand. You can check more information about the EFI system partition by the following link:
Related Article: Do I Need EFI System Partition? Can I Delete the EFI Partition?
